Prepare for the Future RadControls for WPF and Silverlight

Prepare for the Future: RadControls for
WPF and Silverlight
August 28 th Webcast Q&A Follow-up
1. Just for Info: I'm interested in the Silverlight part and not WPF...
No problem, we’ll cover both technologies today, so there is plenty of info on Silverlight. If you’d
like even more Silverlight info, please see my recent “Intro to Silverlight 2” session from devLink
2008: http://telerikwatch.com/2008/08/session-replay-intro-to-silverlight-2.html
2. Have they gotten the bugs worked out for the desktop sharing? Last time there was too many
people.
Today’s webcast will use pre-recorded video demos to avoid the problems we had last time with
live desktop sharing. That should solve the technical problems. We are working towards a better
solution for live desktop sharing, so expect that to return in the future without the bugs.
3. Is Silverlight already released by Microsoft?
Yes and no. Silverlight 1.0 has been officially out for a little more than a year. Silverlight 2.0,
though, is still a beta technology. That said, the official release is imminent, so Silverlight 2.0
should be an “official” non-beta technology within a matter of weeks.
4. When will you have a Silverlight grid with Outlook grouping? And will this control allow you to
load the grid in an unbound load?
Telerik is aggressively working on building a data grid for Silverlight. At the very least, our goal is
to ship a beta of the grid with our Q3 release in November, but ideally we’ll have a v1 ready to
go. The Silverlight grid will be a port of the Telerik RadGridView for WPF, so it will be a very high-
performance grid with all of the features you’d expect, including grouping, filtering, sorting,
paging, and so on.
5. Say it who it is?? :P
This is Todd Anglin, Telerik Chief Evangelist
6. Will lib tech snowboard be open source so we can learn a real example?
Great question! I don’t think LibTech will be “open source’d,” but we should definitely be able to
make the source code available for your review. I’ll talk to the Telerik Silverlight Team and see
when we can do this. Stay tuned to my blog (telerikwatch.com) for an update.
7. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
WAKE UP! 
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8. Can you please also cover WPF & Silverlight basics as well?
Sure thing. We know that learning the basics is the first step to using these new technologies, so
hopefully we got enough in for your today. If you’d like to know more, check out all of the
Silverlight and WPF resources on my blog (telerikwatch.com) and on Telerik’s site
(telerik.com/help).
9. I can see the images, but i can not hear you
Apologies to those that had technical problems. To hear the audio, you needed to dial-in to the
conference bridge. The on-demand video has audio, though, so please check that out (link
available on my blog: TelerikWatch.com) to re-watch the session with audio and video.
10. Do you expect MS Blend to be replaced by VS2008+?
No, these are complementary products. Expression Blend is targeted at designers; VS is targeted
at developers. The idea is that these two tools reduce the gap between developers and
designers and make it easier to collaborate during application development. Whether or not
that’s true, the two tools will remain separate, with Blend focusing on providing better visual
development tools and VS focusing on the coding experience.
11. What is CAB? Prism?
Sorry for not clarifying in the session. CAB stands for Composite Application Block, a framework
used often in complex WinForms applications. The framework makes it easier for teams to split
the functionality of a WinForms application in to “modules” that are “composited” at run-time
(vs. building one huge, hard to manage application). This framework is common in Enterprise
applications. Prism is a new project seeking to build an equivalent framework for WPF. There is
even a project seeking to build a “Prism for Silverlight.”
12. speak slower please
My sincere apologies. I know I talk fast when I get going. Please use the on-demand resource to
review my session at a slower pace (link on my blog: telerikwatch.com)
13. Do RAD controls are built in top of WPF?
Yes, the RadControls for WPF are built completely on the WPF XAML + .NET 3+ framework.
14. RadEditor Soon ?
For WPF? For Silverlight? Let us know if you want it. We are driven by our customer’s requests,
so we’re all ears as we try to set our Road Map for Q3 and beyond.
15. When will RadGridView be available for Silverlight?
Hopefully, by our Q3 2008 release (November). At the very least, a beta will be available at that
time with a v1 to follow. It is one of our top priorities for Silverlight right now.
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16. What is the main differences between RadControls and Infragistics WPF ?
I won’t comment on Infragistics WPF products directly, but I can say that Telerik is seeking to
build a complete productivity tool suite for WPF over our next few releases. We know that
choosing WPF as a dev platform means transitioning from WinForms (usually), so we want to
make sure you have all the tools you’re used to in the new environment. To that end, we’ve
already got a significant head-start building these controls and suite only grows in Q3 with
RadScheduler, RadChart, and RadGauges for WPF.
We’re also taking a unique approach to our XAML controls, using the same code base for
Silverlight and WPF controls, so if you’re thinking of doing any Silverlight development, we offer
a significant advantage (100% code reuse).
17. Can you give us a copy of the powerpoint presentation?
Yes, the PowerPoint from today’s webcast is available on my blog (telerikwatch.com).
18. Do you know if they will update the xmlns requires so that they can be defined in one place
(like the web.config as can be done for asp.net pages)?
Good question. I don’t know the answer directly. As far as I know, XAML requires xmlns tags in
the markup to properly support your custom tags, but MS may have a solution for this that I
haven’t seen. For now, that is a per-XAML page requirement.
19. Is wpf ribbon control on the telerik roadmap?
I don’t believe it’s on the Q3 Road Map, but we’re definitely listening. If this is something you’d
like to see, send us your feedback so we can log your votes and set our plans accordingly.
20. Great presentation Todd! I really enjoyed it. Especially since we are about to start a new big
WPF client project and want to make use of the Telerik WPF suite.
Great! If you need help with your Telerik WPF, feel free to email me:
todd.anglin@[youknowwhere].com
21. Does WPF and/or Silverlight run on handheld (windows mobile 6) ?
WPF, no. Silverlight, not yet, but it will. Recall that Silverlight’s original name was
“WPF/e[verywhere].” Silverlight is the tool designed to take XAML (the core technology behind
WPF) and make it usable everywhere, including mobile devices. We’re still waiting on Silverlight
1.0 for mobile (betas due any day now), and then we should get Silverlight 2.0 for mobile next
summer (Q2 09). When it does ship, WinMo will be a supported platform.
22. Key diffs btween silverlight and Adobe Air?
Adobe Air and Silverlight don’t really compare (Apples and Oranges). Air is designed to enable
Flash/Flex developers to deliver their applications offline, outside of the browser. Silverlight
more closely compares with Adobe Flex (essentially Flash + an SDK). On that comparison, I think
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Silverlight has a much better developer story, especially if you’re a .NET dev, since you can reuse
your .NET skills and use the world’s leading IDE, Visual Studio.
23. Where do you "purchase" these controls on the telerik site? I don't see where you can buy
those (just ASP.NET AJAX, Winforms, and reporting are listed)
If you buy a license for our WinForms/ASP.NET AJAX controls now, you get a free license for the
WPF and Silverlight controls. The WPF and Silverlight controls will get unique pricing in Q3.
24. Beta 2 is out since 6 june 2008
Correct. And Silverlight RTM will be out any day now.
25. Will there be a WTF Ribbon Control?
A WTF Ribbon control? Not from Telerik. 
26. Nevermind... found tag: Purchase until October 1st to get free licenses of RadControls for
Silverlight and RadControls for WPF! How will this be licensed in the futre? separately or part
of Winforms?
In the future, there will still be deeply discounted “bundles” and separate licensing for WPF,
Silverlight, WinForms, etc. Your best value, though, is usually going to be the bundle offers.
27. Does this work for designing UIs for WindowsXP Tablet PC?
Sure. Both WPF and Silverlight natively support Ink and both enable you to heavily customize UIs
to work well in touch screen scenarios. As long as .NET 3+ is installed on XP, you can run WPF,
and as long as the Silverlight plug-in is installed, you can run Silverlight.
28. are RAD controls for Silverlight available for building appllications right now ?
Yes, the RadControls for Silverlight 2 Beta 2 is available right now for download. The official
version will be released as soon as the plug-in is released by Microsoft. You can download a free
trial on the controls from this URL:
http://www.telerik.com/client.net/my-licenses/my-free-trials.aspx
29. Controls like TextBox or Combobox are showing in non- editable readonly state when added
to RadTabControl RabTabItem for WPF while running Application
Interesting problem. I haven’t encountered this directly. I encourage you to report the issue to
our developers via our Support Ticket system or in our Forums. That’s the fastest way to get an
answer from one of our WPF experts.
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30. Does the WPF Rad Grid have a speedsearch or speed filter feature (i.e. ability to seek to row
as user types characters with pattern matching)?
Using the Grid’s filter API, there is no reason you couldn’t support this scenario. I encourage you
to check out the WPF free trail to see the RadGridView in action and see how you can use the
built-in filtering support to do this:
http://www.telerik.com/products/wpf/overview.aspx
31. Can silverlight operate a scanner (via TWAIN driver) like flash can?
Not yet, but it may be able to in a future version. Microsoft has talked about enabling this type
of support, but they’ve made no formal commitments as of yet.
32. What is WMP 10?
WMP = Windows Media Player
33. If xaml is not compiled, can other developers leach our xaml code?
Yes, XAML is easily readable. That said, so is compiled .NET code with Reflector. Code security is
definitely something you have to consider with Silverlight and (to some degree) WPF. If you’re
coming from a web background, this requires a shift in thinking from the server centric model
where all .NET lives on the server. When you code ends-up on a client-pc, it’s fair game for
hackers.
34. Will Silverlight play will with SEO? This is one of the big failings of Flash.
In theory, yes. Here’s Microsoft’s story: Silverlight XAP files (i.e. Silverlight applications) are just
ZIP archives. XAML (used to define your SL UI) is a non-compiled resource in those XAP archives.
Since search indexers can index content inside of ZIP archives, Silverlight applications are
indexable. Does that mean they perform great from an SEO perspective? No. It just means they
can be indexed (more than Flash can say). We’ll need MS solutions or 3rd party tools to make SL
apps truly SEO friendly.
35. Can i use telerik silverlight and telerik asp.ajax controls side-by-side. What are the limitations?
Sure, no problems there at all. In fact, I think “islands” of Silverlight functionality in ASP.NET
AJAX-based apps will be the way most devs start to adopt Silverlight. In the future, Telerik will
even provide ASP.NET AJAX server controls that automatically render Silverlight to make your
job that much easier.
36. is it possible to open a raw TCP/IP socket to a server from a silverlight app?
Yes, Silverlight supports socket communication.
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37. given the sandbox SL runs in, will it ever be able to access devices like web cams?
Not in v2, but future versions may add exceptions that enable access to things like web cams
and USB drives (similar to Flash’s support). Stay tuned for Microsoft’s SL 3 road map sometime
next year.
38. Can we style the tabitem in expression blend for silverlight application?
Yes, that’s what Blend is for. You should be able to style both built-in UI controls and 3rd party
controls like Telerik’s in Blend.
39. Silverlight help to make N-tier web Apps ?
I don’t know if it “helps” per se, but it does “encourage” better separation of concerns. Since all
SL .NET ends-up on a client pc, you’ll likely want to build your business logic in a different tier
and expose it to your SL app via web services. This practice starts to “force” you to more cleanly
separate UI code from business logic from data access code, etc.
40. Can you provide some resources for Silverlight deployment security concerns?
Unfortunately, I haven’t found any good resources addressing this topic online. There are
definitely new security concerns to consider since your .NET code will be downloaded to client
PCs, but as far as I know MS isn’t providing any special tools to help on this front. I think it will
be on developer shoulders to obfuscate assemblies and keep “critical” business code out of
Silverlight applications. I’ll try to compile resources soon and post an update on my blog:
http://telerikwatch.com
41. Is this example available on your site ?
Yes, today’s demo code is available from my blog (telerikwatch.com).
42. what part of the .Net framework isn't supported in SL
Ooh, good question! That’s a tough one to answer. I’m not sure anybody has created a full list of
what’s not in Silverlight. The basic idea is that most of what you need for “normal” application
development is in Silverlight’s condensed 4.5 MB installer. Data binding, generics, LINQ- it’s all
there. I’ll do some research and see what I can find, though, and post an update on Telerik
Watch if I find a good answer.
43. Are "Skins" available in WPF/Silverlight like Telerik has them for WinForm/ASP.NET AJAX? If
so, VisualStyleBuilder or CSS?
Yes, in XAML, though, we call them “Themes.” Telerik will be making a number of themes
available with all WPF and Silverlight controls. At present, there are not many built-in themes,
but that story will change over the next few releases. To customize themes or build your own,
Expression Blend is the tool of choice.
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44. DO your Qx updates upgrade each other, or do we have ti manage which version we
We do not have an “auto update” process for our Q releases (yet), so for now you get to choose
when to upgrade. The process is usually very easy, though, often as simple as replacing a single
assembly.
45. Is Telerik going to be providing a control similar to the RadNumericTextBox?
For WPF or Silverlight? Either way, the answer is yes. We will have all necessary editors in our
common WPF/Silverlight code base, including a numeric textbox. In fact, there already is a
RadNumericUpDown control in both suites:
http://www.telerik.com/products/wpf/controls/numericupdown/overview.aspx
46. in silverlight how How we set checked state of toggle button through c#?
Just like you would with .NET for any other platform: myToggleButton.IsChecked = true;
47. What's the new Popup Manager in RAD beta 2 released yesterday?
This control is used to manage any “pop-up” windows in your Silverlight application and to
coordinate their “Z” position. In other words, this is more of a utility control designed to make
sure any windows or expanding panels properly overlap each other in your app.
48. Great presentation! I noticed that on one of your browsers you had a tab that said "Emulate IE
7". I know it's off topic but is that a browser emulator?
What you were actually seeing is IE Beta 1. The “Emulate IE7” is a developer feature in the IE8
Beta 1 browser that enables you to run the browser in “IE7 mode” (since you can only have a
single version of IE installed on a PC).
49. Great stuff!
Thanks! Glad you liked it.
50. What I need installed in my PC to start developing Silverlight apps with telerik´s controls?
To begin developing with Silverlight, you do need to install a few SDKs and tools to get VS
“Silverlight ready.” The best place to start for finding everything you need is:
http://www.silverlight.net/GetStarted. Once your environment is ready, all you need to use the
RadControls is the RadControls for Silverlight assembly (available for free here:
http://www.telerik.com/client.net/my-licenses/my-free-trials.aspx)
51. Will you be updating your silver light 1.1 document soon?
Yes, we are working on updating that resource for O’Reilly. Stay tuned to my blog for updates:
http://TelerikWatch.com
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52. we have heard cross browser promises before but only to find a bunch of work arounds. How
true is it this time with Silverlight?
No need to worry here. Since this is a plug-in based technology, a Silverlight app works exactly
the same in all browsers and on all platforms that support the plug-in. Right now, that means
your app will work in IE, FF, and Safari on Windows and OS X. In the near future, Linux will be
supported via the Moonlight project, and WinMo and Nokia will be supported by Microsoft on
the mobile front. Beyond that, we’ll see what else supports the plug-in, but I think that should
get you pretty broad reach.
53. What security concerns are there with a Silverlight front end to web service backend serving
data?
Just standard web service security issues. The same issues you might have today with a web
service consumed by a ASP.NET AJAX web application apply to Silverlight applications. Start here
for more background on the topic:
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-1050032.html
54. If you had to begin a new project, to financial market, what technology would you use ?
Winforms (Smart Client) or Silverlight?
Depends on the project requirements and timeline. If I needed to deliver a full featured app in 4
months and desktop deployment was not a deal breaker, I’d pick WinForms or WPF. If the
advantage of web-based deployment and cross-platform support were critical to the project, I’d
pursue ASP.NET AJAX and Silverlight. You must pick the right technology for the right job;
unfortunately there is no “absolute” answer.
55. gr8 presentation, maybe can u talk a bit slower next time? sometimes for non english
speakers it may get difficult to understand. anyways gr8 presentation. thkx for sharing
knowledge.
I know, I get this a lot. Unfortunately, I do have a difficult time slowing down while maintaining
the energy and pace of the presentation. If I slow down, I get bored, and if I get bored, the
energy of the session dies. Hopefully the on-demand version of this session will help make-up
for speed problems!
56. Will DNN suport WPF and Silverlight?
Will DotNetNuke support WPF and Silverlight? Interesting question. First of all, DNN is a
ASP.NET CMS, so it doesn’t have anything to do with WPF. As for Silverlight, there is no reason
you can’t using Silverlight in a DNN site. Silverlight runs completely in the browser, so it doesn’t
impact a server app like DNN at all.
57. Thank you. Very informative presentation.
Great, glad you liked it!
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58. Are you guys are gong to release some standard silverlight application like Player with pay per
view options...
Not quite sure what you mean with your question. We will have plenty of training resources and
demo applications freely available for our Silverlight tools, so if that’s what you were asking, yes!
59. I couldn't hear anything the whole show. Very good slides, though. Made sense of all ths for
me. Thanks.
Wow! You watched the whole thing without audio. I salute you. I would have left.  You can
watch the session with audio on-demand by following the link on my blog
(http://telerikwatch.com).
60. Does a user need to download .NET before being able to use Silverlight since the code runs in
the browser?
No, only the 4.5 MB Silverlight plug-in. Microsoft’s “target” install time for the plug-in is 10
seconds, so that’s the only barrier to running a Silverlight app.
61. Where can i find information about the Map Controls that you mentioned that Telerik
develops?
Did I say map controls? I apologize if I did. We currently do not develop any mapping controls.
You can find info about our WPF and Silverlight tools at the following URLs:
http://www.telerik.com/products/wpf/overview.aspx
http://www.telerik.com/products/silverlight/overview.aspx
62. some readymade application codes will be great help so it give our developers a headstart in
development...as this involes big learning curve
Sure thing. We’ll be generating as much “readymade” code as we can over the next few releases
so you’ll be able to cut the learning curve as much as possible. I think you’ll find, though, that
once you get started, the learning curve is not as hard as it appears. Just give it a try! 
63. thanks 64. Thanks a lot 65. thank you 66. Thanks..Good Job..
You’re all welcome! Thanks for coming!
67. Can you refer good online resource for Silerlight from scratch. Lengthy the better – thanks
The best places to start with Silverlight are:
http://silverlight.net/GetStarted/
http://www.silverlightshow.net/GetStarted.aspx
http://wildermuth.com/Silverlight
68. Thank you for detailed explanation..
You are welcome. Glad you enjoyed it.
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69. is't the tech hyped little too much???????
Ah…what a great question to end on. If you’re talking about Silverlight, then yes, I do think there
is a little too much hype built-up around it. Some people are very bullish on what Silverlight
means for the future of the web, and I think they mischaracterize what Silverlight really is. It’s
not a Ajax killer. It’s not a Flash killer. It’s not the future of the web. It is a great option for .NET
developers seeking to build richer experiences for the web. And as developers, isn’t that what it
is all about: having the tools and skills necessary to build great applications? I think Silverlight is
a great technology with a lot of promise and an excellent choice for the projects that need it.
Thanks again to everyone for the questions and for coming to the
live webcast! Keep your browsers tuned-in to my blog for more
free webcasts and updates:
http://telerikwatch.com
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